Dominic Holden writes about two King County Sheriff’s Deputies going through some withdrawal:
A man is being charged with a felony for selling $5 worth of marijuana to undercover officers, King County Superior Court records show, even though he never offered to sell any pot in the first place. Only after being lured with cash did the defendant agree to sell a joint.
According to records filed in January by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, the incident began when two King County Sheriff’s deputies—Officer Escobar and Officer Schwab—boarded a Metro line last July in Tukwila for “a covert bus ride.” A 51-year-old black man who will remain nameless had also boarded the bus and struck up a “casual conversation” with one of the officers. That officer spontaneously brought up the subject of pot: “Detective Schwab told [the man] he was looking for marijuana.” According the the report, the man asked how much marijuana the undercover officer wanted (it must be noted that this part of the report seems odd, because, as you will see, the man shows no interest in selling marijuana nor has marijuana packaged for sale). After Detective Schwab said he wanted to buy $20 worth of pot, the man “told Detective Schwab that he only had a joint.” But the man did not offer to sell the joint, rather, he “offered to share it with Detective Schwab at the next bus stop,” the report continues. “Detective Schwab declined to smoke with him but offered to purchase the marijuana cigarette from him to smoke later.”
Finally, the man “agreed” to sell his joint for $5, the report explains, and officers arrested him. He reportedly told them that he “does not sell drugs and was only going to use the money to get to Tacoma.”
I-502 was supposed to force police officers to go cold turkey on the war on pot, but apparently some officers still can’t kick the habit.
UPDATE: In the comments, “Moderate Man” points out that the arrest was pre-502 (last July)
If the charge is selling, not possession, the entrapment defense may work here. As for cops trying to put black people in jail for $5 crimes, there’s nothing new about that.
@1
If you read the whole article at the link, you’ll see that the King County Prosecutor’s office dropped the charges quickly after it was clear The Stranger was going public with it.
It’s cases like this that make it as clear as possible that the entire M.O. of the drug war is to funnel as many black people through the court system as possible. I-502 (and pesky reporters doing their jobs) just makes that more difficult for the police to do.
In the Cop universe, there are two kinds of people: Cops and scumbags. If you’re not a cop, you’re a scumbag. A “civilian” is just a scumbag that hasn’t gotten caught yet.
Why you should never, ever trust a cop.
They enjoy almost total immunity from every law on the books. Especially where assault, murder and riot is concerned. They want that Dorner character dead. They aren’t going to let him live to testify about anything, and they sure as shit don’t give a rat fuck who they hurt in the process.
Since this incident happened in July, I-502 wasn’t a factor, correct?
@4 “they sure as shit don’t give a rat fuck who they hurt in the process.”
Well, by all accounts, neither does Dorner.
@5
It says January, did I miss something?
@4 What’s the body count of mushrooms up to now?
@7 – According to records filed in January by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, the incident began when two King County Sheriff’s deputies—Officer Escobar and Officer Schwab—boarded a Metro line last July in Tukwila for “a covert bus ride.”
The incident was in July. That doesn’t make it OK of course; it just removes I-502 from the equation.
@9
Thanks, read through it too quickly.